About Rookie

Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here, and find out how to submit your work here!

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[Hits snooze on alarm clock, rolls over] OH HI! July’s theme is SLOW MOTION: When the thrill of summer has given way to boredom and introspection creeps in. If last July, THE GREAT UNKNOWN, was about feeling like you don’t know who you are, Slow Motion is when you find parts of yourself that feel real, sustainable; when the identity pendulum (also a prop from 2002’s The Master of Disguise) stops swinging so far in opposite directions and slowly moves toward a natural center. This can be a destabilizing process, because constantly forming new beliefs can also make you feel like you are constantly wrong about life, so maybe a better visual than a pendulum would be a set of monkey bars where you swing from catharsis to catharsis, each fleeting realization getting you exactly where you need to go.

Slow Motion is also the tension between wanting to preserve the past and jump into the future, which is heightened on summer break. There’s the gift of having time to enjoy the stuff you like to do without it necessarily being your college major or job, and how, when you don’t have to adhere to rules, you get to learn what YOUR gifts are, before fucking too much with what I guess people call craft. There’s the danger of entertaining abstract fears about the future, and the futility of reliving horrible awkward interactions of the past that, in fact, never have to happen again! There’s the frustration of boredom, that because “nothing” has “happened” in your life, you have no stories to tell, when in fact, it’s your point of view that will saturate even the most mundane and allow you to glean insight from seeming micro-events. Slow Motion means you have time to pay attention and uncover layers. It means Cat Power’s “Nothin But Time”:

I see you, kid, alone in your room
You got the weight on your mind
And you’re just trying to get by
Your world is just beginning
And I know this life seems never-ending
But you got nothing but time
And it ain’t got nothing on you

And E.L. Doctorow on writing, but also life: “It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

And what Rookie writer Lola wrote me in the same email where she also sent me a Lester Bangs quotation that I used in my December 2012 Editor’s Letter (I still go back to this email all the time):

“sometimes i think about how when he was older carl jung couldn’t figure out how to conceptualize the psyche, even though at that point he was pretty old and clearly good at that stuff. he had used everything he had, all the skills he knew. so he was like, “hmm, can’t figure out the psyche. guess i’ll go build a house about it.” he went out alone to the woods and built a crazy stone castle and when he was done, he was able to write the book on how the psyche is structured. you solve a problem and then it comes back and you have to fight it off again. or you use up all your problem-solving tools and you have no idea what to do next. each problem you solve helps you solve other problems in the future, except with a bigger, cooler sword.”

Let us use this in-between space to sharpen our swords…for a LARPing tournament!!!! But also for life’s curveballs. (Which I will still combat with a sword, because my preferred way of playing baseball is to hack stuff up with a giant knife.)

AND NOW! On this very day, we are sending Rookie Yearbook Four to print. I’M SO EXCITED. It is always impossible to compare them, since they all contain such different stuff, but dare I say this one is my favorite? It has so many extra-special, no-pixel gems that you can’t get on our site, from the likes of Lorde, Solange, Shamir, Charli XCX, DeJ Loaf, Willow Smith, Ariana Grande, Rashida Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross, Donna Tartt, Jazz Jennings, Amandla Stenberg, Kiernan Shipka, Emma Roberts, Sarah Paulson, Joy Williams, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange, Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, and Chloe Chaidez of Kitten. WHEW. The DIY zone is also an utter delight: a collage kit by Emma D., a teen bedroom diorama by Leanna, a banner by Allegra of pizza slice-shaped inspirational quotes, a stunning paper fan and jewelry box by Kendra, and, of course, stickers. You can pre-order it right here or on Amazon, where they sometimes offer PACKAGE DEALZ if you also buy ourotherbooks!

It comes out October 20, and we’ll do a book tour to exchange hugs and adorn our faces in aforementioned stickers. I hope you love it! It is our very last Yearbook—senior year, GET IT?—but we hope not the last of Rookie in print. (Thunderous crash, lightning strikes, a city of people who hate stickers run and scream.)

Now, I’ll go queue up the smooth jazz to accompany this month of Slow Motion.

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I’m super excited about the new book, and am sure the guest authors have great things to write and advice to give. But this website is called ROOKIE mag, not VERY EXPERIENCED AND SUCCESSFUL MILLIONIARE mag. Every time I hear about a successful and wealthy young woman, it fills me with pride for girlhood. But I read Rookie every single day, several times, and the newer material does not seem to be for the insecure and confused yet extremely intelligent teenage girl that it used to be. And the pieces by readers that aren’t staff writers are very rare. I’m a big fan of a lot of your interviews and pieces written by people well established in their careers, but I don’t think those pieces should dominate a website named for a word that means inexperienced, unprofessional, and new.

ClaireJuly 1st, 20155:45 PM

Man, I am in full agreement with this. The Rookie clique (for lack of a better word) just bums me out because I feel like I’m sitting at a table by myself in the cafeteria and envying all the super-accomplished cool kids. (Did that sound crazy? Yeah, probably. Whatever.)

kylecharharJuly 9th, 20153:02 PM

No girl that’s how I feel, too. It feels like the large majority of the content is only directed at A Certain Type of Young Lady–the super-creative, the smart, the confident, the ambitious. It starts to become grating to see yet another slideshow of unsmiling girls in pretty dresses when I’m trying to keep my head above water with college admissions and sports and family and school. I guess Rookie represents an idealized version of teendom, and though it’s one that’s much more down to earth than things like Seventeen, it can be just as unattainable. I think the new sleekness and success of contributors (and good for them!) only exacerbates that. Maybe? I don’t know. But something definitely frustrates me about it, as much as I love it.

kylecharharJuly 9th, 20153:09 PM

Then again, if all we wanted was relatability, we’d all be duking it out on Buzzfeed right now. ‘Tis a thin thin line.

ClaireJuly 1st, 20155:47 PM

(I don’t even know if that’s what you meant, but it just helped me put into words something I’ve been thinking about for a while)

afteryrgoneJuly 1st, 20156:35 PM

i 200000% agree – there’s been something different about rookie recently and i think you put your finger on it!!!! as much as i love it and read it religiously, it’s gotten (understandably) sleek and polished, not really paying homage to the diy punk rock zine sort of thing it started off as !

NerdyGalJuly 1st, 201510:18 PM

Interesting thought. I’d never considered that, but I think I agree – sometimes. But don’t we need to give Rookie room to develop and change and just because it has moved away from it’s…. I dunno maybe underground roots and become more mainstream is that really a bad thing??

thebrownetteJuly 1st, 20159:01 PM

I know what you mean; I’ve been reading Rookie since its inception and am only a few months oldere than Tavi. I think that what we’re seeing is, in some respects, the natural growth of the project. Rookies aren’t rookies forever–rookies mature and grow, and I see the website as doing the same in a sense. I go back to old Rookie articles for reassurance (and mostalgia) sometimes, but I think that it’s natural for its tone to shift as its original staff/writers/creators mature as well. I’m not saying that all “for girls by girls” projects become irrelevant once their staff grows, but that, as necessary “for teen girls by teen girls” projects are, no one’s a teenage forever. I’m actually really excited to see what direction Rookie takes as everyone grows up and matures!

dncnlwJuly 2nd, 20155:52 AM

I am new to Rookie (last month or so), so the only Rookie I know is what everybody here seems to be describing as “new” Rookie. Since joining, I have been hugely impressed with the depth, analysis, and consistency of the posts–although I will admit to mostly beelining to the sex + love section. I recently listened to some of Tavi’s interviews and was very impressed with her powerfully feminist vision/voice, and how it resonated strongly with everything I’ve read on the site (or vice versa). So, the site could be viewed as something very conscious, carefully curated, crafted-->
26:15
38:00

However, her remarks are oblique/he doesn’t really probe further.

Anyway, could you share some posts that you would say are exemplative of “old” Rookie? I know it’s all in archives, was just curious about what others thot

Mimi7July 2nd, 20151:13 PM

I have been reading Rookie religiously pretty much since the beginning, and I totally agree with you. The difference in Rookie is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.
It is definitely still incredible, but it has lost the special kind of super incredibleness.
The main thing is that Rookie does not seem as raw and unique as it used to be. Maybe it is because a lot of things have already been covered, but I miss the more, I’m not sure how to put it, but really heartfelt putting yourself out there pieces.
It also seems like the stereotype of a “Rookie girl” is getting to homogenized. Where it used to be this eclectic mix of teenage girls who could relate to each other, it now seems like a lot are aiming for such similarity.
I’m not sure if this makes sense, but you brought up a very relevant topic that I felt the need to try and explain my point.
Also, I certainly do not want to be mean or overly negative or mean AT ALL, I just love Rookie so much and feel that it is good to be completely honest in respect to things/people that you love.

julia sophieJuly 3rd, 20159:23 AM

I’m also a Rookie Reader from the beginning and me, too, noticed the slight “change” within the articles recently.
But I actually think it’s not Rookie who changed, it’s us.
Couldn’t it be that we simply got so used to the site and the style of writing and the type of content by now, that it seems a little bit more “normal” to us, and not anymore this new super exciting oh-my-god-i-have-never-read-something-like-that-before thing?

With that being said I want to add how perfectly in time this months theme comes for me – I’m an art student and recently started concentrating on making art that is about slowness and slow movement and, in a way, slow motion, too! So, so excited to read this month’s articles!!!!

Erin.July 3rd, 20154:31 PM

I both agree and disagree with this and other preceding comments. Because, from the beginning, Rookie has been an ongoing collaboration between Tavi and other creative people, who she often was or became friends with. But while the earlier contributors were mostly burgeoning photographers, style bloggers, and other interweb dwellers, there’s been a bit of an evolution towards people who are more “famous,” and it can seem like more of an exclusive clique. And while sometimes I enjoy reading their pieces (like Lorde’s piece about song-writing), sometimes it just seems a little much, and like a borderline marketing ploy. I noticed a shift in Rookie especially since they changed from the small Drawn and Quarterly to Razorbill (which is part of Penguin, one of the biggest publishers in the world). I feel like they might be using these big names to sell more copies (in addition to what I feel is an increase in sex/love pieces). But this is speculation.

At the same time, in terms of content, I think rather than Rookie going mainstream, the mainstream has gone Rookie, so maybe it doesn’t seem as “special” as it does when you first start reading. Also, I can’t remember where, but Tavi has made it clear that she will not adopt a false perspective for the sake of writing Rookie articles. Rightfully so, she doesn’t want to pretend like she’s an inexperienced high school student. But, I don’t know, I think there’s still so much that has been left unsaid on Rookie, so many perspectives yet to be represented, so I look forward to seeing how this little slice of pizza continues to develop.

JenorisJuly 5th, 20152:07 PM

I feel you on this. I think a part of the shift of the content is largely to do with a shift in the staff (which is understandable because it’s only natural to move away from projects you were a part of as a teenager for any number of valid reasons), which is not necessarily a bad thing. In the first two years they had people like Petra, Hazel, Tara, Olivia, Dana, Pixie, etc providing the majority of the content. Now there are newer voices entering the fray including Rian who I’ve been following on tumblr for ages and who is a straight up queen in every sense of the word. Naturally, with this shift, the narrative and aesthetic of Rookie will change. That being said, there’s always been this kind of weird “wow these people are doing incredible things and I’m just kinda here trying and not making it!” dynamic that I’ve noticed a lot of readers remark upon in the years that I’ve been reading Rookie (and I’ll admit, it’s something I’ve felt myself), but I don’t think it’s something intentional. Tavi herself remarked in an interview/Q&A with Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) which is on youtube somewhere that she doesn’t WANT Rookie to feel like that. That could be a part of the reason why the very direct personal anecdotes and diary snippets that were a part of articles/editor’s letters aren’t present anymore. I don’t know, I don’t know Tavi, but it could be a reason why. But I do entirely understand the kinda “cool, smart, creative, bright-future-having” resentment that’s been pervasive throughout Rookie’s still young life.

JenorisJuly 5th, 20152:19 PM

However, it’s important to not project that onto the creators/curators/editors of this site because I don’t think these are intentional results. These are valid criticisms but it’s worth noting that Rookie has also made a lot of important strides. At the start, Rookie felt a bit more exclusive of marginalized people, esp fat peeps and poc, (again, not something that I think was intentional) and the artwork was reflective of that as well. But it’s become MUCH more inclusive of marginalized young people and I think that’s so incredible. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything done by Tyler, Rian and Tyra for Rookie. I also loved that they had a whole post dedicated to swimwear for fat babes. They also work a lot harder to help their readers transition into the next stage. Their Work theme was filled with a lot of incredible posts. Two posts (I’m not sure if they were both from this same month but I think at least one of them was) that I always have bookmarked are How To Take Yourself Seriously and How To Find a Mentor. I think Rookie cares about their readers. I do also think there’s been a weird slight disconnect as well. I can’t pretend to know the cause(s) or solution(s), but I don’t see this particular point in Rookie’s life as a decline. It’s a shift. It’s like putting a new roll of film in a camera. You have to go through a few frames before you can really get the most out of it. #shitanalogies

Tavi GevinsonJuly 6th, 20151:44 PM

Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for these thoughtful comments, reading the site, and letting us know how you feel about all this.

I hope there is a way in which Rookie growing does not have to feel at odds with our intentions from the very beginning: to spread good stuff to anyone who could benefit from it, which sort of inherently means becoming less inexperienced. I never really wanted it to be a punk zine, since that might feel exclusive to some folks! Our natural growth/becoming less DIY does not make our mission any different. It is true that putting celeb namez on a sticker on the Yearbook covers helps to sell them. (It is less accurate that having stuff about sex in books helps us sell them, as Amazon reviews by dismayed guardians tell us. We include frank conversations about sex because we don’t really see them elsewhere. I’m happy that Razorbill has never censored those articles, nor urged us to do more of them!) We want more and more people to know about Rookie, so maybe they come for the “celeb” contributions (all of which I am thrilled to be publishing just for how good they are) and stay for the how-tos, essays, artwork, poetry, and other work. Since the book costs $, we asked for new contributions from artists our readers have asked us to work with. I hope you, too, will find their stuff beautiful and thoughtful and about more than BEIN’ MILLIONAAAHS *Richard Gere’s song from Chicago starts playing*.
(cont’d for word count…)

Tavi GevinsonJuly 6th, 20151:45 PM

I’m also excited about all the work in the book by younguns (smh @ myself) who illustrated those features, interviewed the subjects, contributed in a myriad other ways, and created the visual elements that make what you see on the site so amazing in print. I should have mentioned that in the letter, and I’m sorry for my oversight. Some of them are regular contributors to the site and some aren’t and some are readers I met at events or on Instagram or in our submissions inbox. When Rookie started and was kinda floating around the internet like a satellite, it helped to have a fixed group of contributors every month and call it a “staff,” whereas now it would be goofy not to feast on the minds of everyone in this community. Thank you for acknowledging how the site has become more inclusive and less driven by the original “staff,” but I agree that we need to keep bringing even more people into the mix. As always, it is extremely helpful and important to us to know how all these elements translate to you guys. We would also love to know what you feel like you’re seeing less of these days, if you’re open to talking about it further. Thank you again for voicing these thoughts and feels!
<3

JaysonJuly 1st, 20154:41 PM

Tavi, your Editor Letters are always so powerful. You really bring the theme to life and show how one word or one concept can branch out into so many different ideas, discussions, emotions, and fields of study. What I also love is that you cite from your colleagues, role models, and other writers. It’s a reminder that although you are an idol to so many (including me) that you’re just as human as the rest of us are were inspired and motivated by others to get to where you are today. It pushes me to work hard because maybe someday I’ll be as cool, intelligent, wise, introspective, and empowering as you.

Jayson – gayonabudget.com

Christi EllieJuly 1st, 20156:56 PM

HOLY. I cannot express how excited I am for Yearbook #4!!! For 1.5 seconds there were tears brimming my eyes; I am too emotionally invested in this mag. Anyway, looking at the list of people in the upcoming Yearbook and ohmygoodness, so many of my role models and style icons. This is going to be so goooood. And the TOUR. Really hope you come to Texas. October feels too far away. xx

sophbloger16July 1st, 20157:17 PM

I don’t even have the 1st 3 rookie books! I neeeed them! Also, i totally get that feeling od being wrong about the world all the time, but honestly,i have been feeling like its finally settling down lately.

sayjaykaymayJuly 1st, 20158:12 PM

please please please sell some individual sticker packets!! I love all the stickers in your yearbooks but i kinda wanna keep them in mint condition ya know.
<3

diyanaJuly 1st, 20158:31 PM

If you guys hit up Toronto again on the book tour I’ll do everything to make sure I can make it this time!! So stoked for the new Yearbook.

necedadesJuly 1st, 201511:48 PM

tavi how do u do it- ur editor letters are always perfect. PLUS i am so hype for yearbook four!!! all those ppl r awesome. pls hit up florida for the tour bc my range as a 17 yr old with no car is super limited.

There is one thing though – I can’t hide how disappointed I am to see Emma Roberts in there. Yes, the Emma Roberts who was the awesome Coven and the awesome Palo Alto, but also the same Emma Roberts who was arrested for abusing her boyfriend.

Rookie is 200% a safe space for survivors of abuse and assault, so it really surprises me. Normally (and rightfully) you would never validate any alleged abuser so as not to contribute to victim-blaming culture. This seems to me to be a departure.

The abuse she committed isn’t any different for being towards a boy, but lots of people seem to see a difference because of the fun old patriarchy “a girl couldn’t possibly harm a boy, they’re powerless” chestnut that harms male abuse survivors.

Rookie is utterly and completely NOT one of those sources, and I would never think you were, so I guess I’m wondering about your reasons for apparently making peace with Roberts’ abuse allegations when I know it ISN’T “he’s a boy, whatever.”
Was the interview complete before the allegations/evidence arose, perhaps? Is part of the interview about her struggle with it, or even an apology? Has she been found 100% innocent and I just don’t know? Your reasons could be any of these, or none.

I still adore and respect Rookie, always will (literally just pre ordered TWO of yearbook 4), but that respect also means I want to be honest with you as such a brilliant publication, even in asking these difficult questions.

Mad love to you <3

knarfJuly 6th, 201512:17 PM

THANK YOU! i love when people view both sides!

erinxoJuly 2nd, 201510:17 AM

Oh god the last yearbook? That is devastating! I can’t help but envision a monthly magazine though – now I’ve thought of that I’d be surprised if I’m wrong and there’s no magazine at all!

ElisabethGraceJuly 4th, 20157:47 PM

please please please come to NC!! i’ll even get someone to drive me all the way to raleigh if thats where you come!! please!! love yall!!